My friend's band
A friend of mine has asked me to write music for his band. This is mildly terrifying, partly because he is a superb musician and composer, far better than I, and so he'll be judging it good or bad in some way or another; and then he'll presumably play it, in public, alongside the music he has written, and so other people will compare it too. I generally don't put much store by rock fans' appreciation of music, but they're not completely useless, and they know a song with life in it from one that doesn't; and I fear I won't be able to put the sort of superabundance of life into my song that rock music demands. As this friend certainly can do that, I may not compare well.
But a greater reason for the terror is that I have taken this project as an opportunity to write a song with lyrics, which I'm planning to write myself. The sort of music his band plays - influenced I would guess by Bowie, Queen, Arcade Fire, the Beatles (not to mention Debussy etc.) - is the sort that demands lyrics. The rock/pop music with which I am most familar is Dream Theater, Steve Vai, Joanna Newsom, Metallica, etc. - and jazz. Which is to say, not exactly three-minute verse-chorus-verse stuff; and not generally music in which the lyrics are paramount. And worse, even when the lyrics are important, my ear tends away from them anyway: so I have a very poor understanding of them.
And worse, I've never in my life written lyrics (well - almost), and neither have I ever written poetry (except once). And I don't read poetry, I have no real understanding of it, I don't have any natural feel for its rhythms.
Now I know I could write a prog rock song, but that seems ungrateful. And besides, I want the challenge.
So basically, I'm asking you for advice - how do you write poetry/song lyrics; do you have any other pertinent things to say? I'm quite excited about this, even though it may quite possibly come to nothing. I haven't written anything in months; it'd be good to get back into it.
Best
EDIT: I forgot to mention, my friend's band is called Ana Gog, and here is their MySpace page. They're a great band, well worth checking out. And if you can give them a hand professionally, they'll be very grateful.
But a greater reason for the terror is that I have taken this project as an opportunity to write a song with lyrics, which I'm planning to write myself. The sort of music his band plays - influenced I would guess by Bowie, Queen, Arcade Fire, the Beatles (not to mention Debussy etc.) - is the sort that demands lyrics. The rock/pop music with which I am most familar is Dream Theater, Steve Vai, Joanna Newsom, Metallica, etc. - and jazz. Which is to say, not exactly three-minute verse-chorus-verse stuff; and not generally music in which the lyrics are paramount. And worse, even when the lyrics are important, my ear tends away from them anyway: so I have a very poor understanding of them.
And worse, I've never in my life written lyrics (well - almost), and neither have I ever written poetry (except once). And I don't read poetry, I have no real understanding of it, I don't have any natural feel for its rhythms.
Now I know I could write a prog rock song, but that seems ungrateful. And besides, I want the challenge.
So basically, I'm asking you for advice - how do you write poetry/song lyrics; do you have any other pertinent things to say? I'm quite excited about this, even though it may quite possibly come to nothing. I haven't written anything in months; it'd be good to get back into it.
Best
EDIT: I forgot to mention, my friend's band is called Ana Gog, and here is their MySpace page. They're a great band, well worth checking out. And if you can give them a hand professionally, they'll be very grateful.